


One thing leads to another

by Jualis



Category: Adventure Time, Mumintroll | Moomins Series - Tove Jansson
Genre: Accidental Neglect, Alternate Universe- No Supernatural, Autistic Fern the human, Autistic Snusmumriken | Snufkin, Dysfunctional Family, Everyone in his family has issues tbh, Family Issues, Fern feels neglected and left out, Fern has issues, Highschool AU, Human AU, M/M, Slow Burn, Tags will be added as I write, crossover AU, no beta we die like men
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-16
Updated: 2019-06-16
Packaged: 2020-05-12 20:16:44
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,667
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19236343
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jualis/pseuds/Jualis
Summary: Fern always felt overshadowed by his siblings, and one day that feeling became too much to deal with. So he ran off into the woods, but in turn ended up meeting a rather interesting fellow





	One thing leads to another

He was always the third triplet, the third one to be noticed, the last one people cared about. It was always Fionna and Finn that got the recognition, they were the one’s people cared about, and Fern hated that. It’d been that way since their mom died and their dad's come into the picture, even if it was obvious that he didn’t care for any of them, he cared for Fern the least. Even forgetting he had a third child, that neglect eventually lead to the three of them being taken out of his care and placed with Cake and Jake, twins as well, but yet the feeling of his unimportance carried over. 

Fern hated it, he hated being ignored, he hated living in his siblings shadow. He hated how popular Fionna and Finn where and yet barely anyone even knew he existed, and even than the teacher’s didn’t seem to care for him either.

It felt like everyone in his life just didn’t care about him, no matter how much his siblings told him they did. To Fern it was obvious they were just lying through their teeth, not only was he unable to do anything right, people didn’t care if he was even around. 

And Fern was done with it, he’d reached his breaking point. It had started off as a normal dinner, Jake had asked the group what they wanted, and before Fern could even speak his siblings had yelled their answer, drowning out anything he’d have to say. 

Fern just sighed, as he did, and sat down at the table. Sitting quietly behind Jake as he got to work preparing dinner, not bothering to look at Finn or Fionna as they bounded outside to goof around until Jake called them back in. 

Dinner proceeded as normal, the five of them crowded around their little kitchen table, shoving things off the couch, which Fern sat at the edge of. Everyone else talked loudly, and every time Fern went to speak he was cut off, he didn’t even bother to get their attention anymore.

It was towards the end of the meal when he’d reached his breaking point, it was so frustrating, they were so frustrating. Fern had been cut off 10 times during dinner, and that on top of years of feeling ignored and not valued had piled up onto each other until it became too much for him to deal with. 

Fern stood up and slammed his half eaten plate of food on the floor, watching the cheap dollar store china Cake had bought shatter on the floor, bits of meatloaf and carrots mix together with broken ceramic. He stood there, staring at the mess for a few seconds before bolting out the door, running into the woods behind the house. 

See, the five of them lived right outside a park, a line of forest sat behind them. It was one of the first places the triplets had explored upon moving in with Jake and Cake, and it served as one of Fern’s only places of solace. 

As he ran he could hear the yells of his family as he pushed further into the woods, leaving them behind as he felt leaves and sticks crunch against his bare feet the farther he ran. Fern ran aimlessly, he didn’t plan were he was going, he was too caught up in the moment and his own emotions to think straight. 

He ran until his chest burned, and when he stopped to catch his breath he had no idea where he was, he was still in the woods, but he wasn’t in a place he recognized. His legs ached, his chest burned, he couldn’t seem to get air into his lungs fast enough, and his family probably didn’t even care that he was gone. 

He couldn’t stop himself from crying, even if it only made him more frustrated with himself. Fern just couldn’t stop, he cried until he felt it was pointless, in which he wiped his face on his sleeve. Eye’s now stinging slightly as he began to walk again, going slow this time in order to not get anymore lost than he already was, not that it particularly mattered. 

That’s when he heard it, music, Fern didn’t know if he was hallucinating or if someone else was out here in the woods with him. None the less he decided to follow it, feet crunching against leaves as he grew closer and closer to the sound. Until he entered a clearing. 

A clearing with a tent, a small campfire, and a strange man sitting with his back towards him, playing a harmonica of all things. Fern sighed, he’d ran into someone camping, the fact that camping in these woods on park land was illegal not even crossing his mind as he turned to leave. He was about to leave when he heard a voice, it was the strangers. 

“Hullo, what brings you here?” asked the stranger, his voice surprisingly deep for his lanky frame. Now that Fern could get a good look at him, he didn’t seem too threatening, he even had an air of trustworthiness. Fern, against his better judgement stepped into the clearing and sat across from the stranger.  
The two of them sat in silence for a few minutes, the stranger seemingly unbothered by Fern’s lack of an answer. He simply began to dig through his backpack until he pulled out another bowl, sitting it beside him he stirred what Fern assumed was some kind of soup? The silence the two of them sat in felt less forceful, it didn’t feel as if the stranger didn’t want Fern to speak, and more of he was letting Fern take his time to gather his words. In the presents of this stranger Fern could speak anytime he wanted to, and the other would wait until his words formed. 

As the stranger moved to stir the pot of simmering liquid and vegetables Fern got another good look at him, and was able to properly analyze his appearance. For one he was tall but thin, he looked like a birch tree branch. His hair was a dark brown, with hints of orange, he had a thin and gaunt face with his nose pulling into a point. Despite this his features were friendly, even if he dressed like a hobo, wearing a large green shall with patches sewn through out, a yellow scarf, obviously dirtied green pants, and combat boots caked with mud. 

It was the stranger who broke the silence when he filled the bowls beside him with the liquid in the pot, then promptly handing one to Fern as he turned to grab spoons out of his bag. 

 

“You don’t have to eat if you don’t want to, it’s up to you” he said as he offered Fern a spoon, which he promptly took. Stirring what he could now determine was most likely a stew in order for it too cool off enough for the boy to eat it, Fern decided he’d speak for the first time since joining the stranger. 

“Hey, what’s your name?”, Fern’s tone of voice may have sounded a bit accusatory, he always had difficulties determining if what he’d said came out how he intended them to. But if it had, the stranger seemed unbothered by, as he quit blowing air onto his spoonful of stew to answer. 

“Snufkin, it’s short for an even stranger name, what’s yours?”

So Fern finally had a name for his company, Snufkin, he was right that his name was strange. But Fern couldn’t judge, he was the only boy he’d ever known to be named after a plant, in some false attempt to fit a rhyme scheme with his siblings. 

“Fern” 

In response to his answer Snufkin hummed, going back to eating his stew. The conversation was short, unbearably short, but again Fern didn’t feel as if Snufkin was trying to silence him, he just began to believe the other valued silence. He didn’t seem like one to need to constantly have a conversation going in order to enjoy someones company. 

That was until he spoke up again to ask Fern a question, it didn’t seem accusatory or anything, he just seemed curious. 

“What brings you to my camp, I don’t usually get guests outside of a few” 

Fern flinched defensively, pulling inwards in order to protect himself somehow. He stopped attempting to eat the stew, even if he’d honestly prefer to eat the whole thing, because as much as he loves meatloaf, his emotions kind of ruined the meal for him that night. 

Upon seeing his defensiveness and uncomfortability, Snufkin seemed to drop the question, letting the two of them fade back into their comfortable silence as they eat. He leaned in to get another bowl when Fern spoke up again. 

“It’s heavy, are you sure you want to hear it?” 

“Only if you want to tell me” Snufkin responded, filling up his bowl and leaning back down to repeat the process of letting it cool before eating. 

“Alright, my family and everyone in my life acts like I don’t exist or I’m not as important as my siblings, I feel like I’m living in everyone’s shadow and I don’t matter!” 

Fern huffed, before quickly finishing off his bowl of stew so he could continue unloading all of his problems onto the person he just met maybe half an hour ago. As he handed the empty bowl to Snufkin, who promptly placed it in a pile with a bunch of other dirty dishes, Fern began to explain why he was out in the middle of the forest, why he’d gone out in the first place. 

He explained everything, all of his gripes with his siblings, how he felt like he’d just be forgotten. That when he graduated highschool he’d be completely forgotten from the family and that it would confirm that no one in his family actually cared about him in the first place. 

Fern expected Snufkin to react awkwardly, or to be disinterested, but he wasn’t. The other turned out to be an amazing listener, who only stopped the conversation so he could put out the fire. His gaunt face changing slightly in reaction to Fern’s words, the more he talked to Snufkin the more he proved himself to be an amazing listener, he showed genuine interest in what Fern had to say. 

“Wow that’s…..rough” Snufkin responded, despite the lack of words Fern could tell that he was sympathetic. He was offering his version of comfort or sympathy, even if it was of few words and even fewer facial expressions. 

The two reentered their comfortable silence once more, before Fern spoke up to ask Snufkin of his interests. He wanted to know what the other liked to do, he knew he’d probably get an extremely short answer from him, and he was correct in that regards. Snufkin informed him of his interest in camping, how he played the harmonica, and his hobby of fishing, to which Fern than spoke about how he liked the garden despite the fact that no one else cared for it. 

At the mention of gardening Snufkin’s body language seemed to loosen, to light up a bit. He seemed interested, engaged in that subject of Fern’s life. For once in their conversation, it was Snufkin who asked the question. 

“What do you grow?” 

“Mostly flowers, sometimes herb’s if our older sister brings back seed packets”, Fern responded, to which Snufkin hummed, seemingly pleased with the answer. Strange, Fern thought, usually no one else seemed even remotely interested in gardening, not even Fern really, it just gave him something to do. 

“Although I don’t pull the weeds so our neighbor calls them ugly”, Fern’s voice was much more soft and quiet. He spoke as if he was only half intending for Snufkin to hear what he was saying. But the other had heard him, and he seemed even more pleased with Fern’s disinterest in pulling weeds that would just come back anyways. 

“As it should be, weeds are still plants, who are we as humans to pick and choose what kind of plant will grow where?”, the more the two talked on the subject of gardening the more Snufkin proved himself to be an environmentalist. 

The two of them talked until the sun began to set, in which it was Snufkin who brought it to Fern’s attention. As much as Fern wanted to stay with Snufkin in the woods and to not go home, he knew that the other would most likely deny that request, and he didn’t want to be out in the woods alone at night. Luckily, before he could ask Snufkin for help out of the woods, the brunette had offered. Which Fern graciously accepted, following closely behind as the two of them began their trek back home. 

They’d been walking for around 10 minutes before Fern spoke up again, his voice once again softer and awkward,“Snufkin, can we hang out again sometimes?”

This question prompted the other to turn around, a confused expression on his face. Showing that he wasn’t angry or irritated with Fern for asking the question, just, confused as to why he’d do so. Snufkin found it hard to process why someone other than his tight group of friends would willingly want to be around him. He’d thought he’d proven himself to fit their niche and he wouldn’t make any friends outside of that.

“Uh, yeah, how about we meet in the park square”, Snufkin asked, to which Fern promptly agreed. Happy with the answer he got, it became obvious to Snufkin that his companion probably had little to no friends, their conversation early had most definitely proved that. 

After that the two of them began walking in silence until they could see the street lights illuminate the treetops as the sun finally dipped beneath the sky, as well as hearing the concerned yelling of Fern’s name. 

As they stopped Snufkin turned to Fern, telling him he’d leave here and Fern could go back from there on his own. As Fern’s face twisted into one of concern Snufkin placed reassuring a hand on his shoulder, telling him they’d meet again and talk, but they both needed to go home now. Sighing Fern agreed, a small smile forming on his face once more.

The two of them said their goodbyes as Fern began to walk the short two minute walk back to the break in the clearing, stepping out into his backyard to see all four members of his family looking at him with concerned expressions. Despite them running up to him out of worry, with Jake demanding to know where he’d been.

All he could do was sigh and say that he’d just been for a walk in the woods for a while, he didn’t want to tell them all of his new, albeit secretive friend. Managing to wriggle his way out of his siblings tight hug, he just walked into the house and into the room he shared with Finn. 

Laying on the top bunk he stared up at the ceiling, sighing as he traced the pattern’s he’d drawn on with a permanent marker. Fern couldn’t draw, he knew that, but he still enjoyed making those patterns when he could, as he pulled his arm back down to rest on his chest his mind wandered off into thought. 

About how neither of his siblings had ever talked about someone as peculiar as Snufkin, and how he was going to keep his new found friend a secret. He was going to be Snufkin’s friend, he was finally going to have a friend of his own, a friend that was his. Not a pitiful excuse for a friend who really valued Fionna or Finn more than him, an actual friend that he could call his own. 

And with that, he pulled his blanket up past his shoulders and began to doze off.


End file.
